7 Major Skills You Need before joining MBA.
Harvard, Wharton, ISB- legendary MBA Schools.
Top graduates from schools are more job ready than their peers.
Many students have a wrong mindset that their MBA schools will teach them everything.
In this career insight, I will be sharing hard and soft skills that every MBA aspirant needs to make the best use of her MBA program.
I will be taking into account my personal experiences as an Indian School of Business MBA graduate.
Here are 7 top skills all MBA aspirants must have before landing on an MBA campus:
1. Know about Web 3.0
Emerging technologies are getting adopted by all businesses and governments.
Few of these emerging technologies are:
A. Internet of Things
B. Artificial Intelligence
D. BlockChain
Know the applications of these advanced technologies to advance your career.
2. Learn about Platform Models
Most organizations today that hire MBAs are just not FMCG, Automobile companies.
Top employers that hire are #platform based. Examples- Amazon, Spotify, and Nykaa.
A good understanding of the platform model gets critical to get hired.
3. Growing Revenue
You get a 360° view of an organization when you solve their revenue problems.
The issues might lie in marketing, and supply chain.
So if an opportunity arises in your organization, pick work that allows looking into the strategy side.
4. Excel at Microsoft Excel
Excel is a way of life.
Be comfortable with VLookup, Pivots, and Modeling.
No professor will teach you these in MBA School.
This will help you not to waste your time learning basics on campus when your peers will be submitting assignments and running ahead of schedule.
B. Soft Skills
5. Working in teams
MBA is all about peer-to-peer learning and assignments.
It's hard to be a lone warrior on the MBA campus.
Working in teams will teach you the needed EQ to work with new diverse people.
6. Have Good Work Ethic
There are many free riders on campus.
Don't be one.
Because your reputation gets you opportunities in the long term.
Today, I collaborate with my peers from ISB who were team players, not free riders!
7. Crisp Communication
Before my MBA, aim to work in front-end roles.
It sharpens your negotiation and communication skills.
It will give you an edge over others, and help you get hired.
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I have always maintained MBA in not a magic wand, it is an accelerator program.
Don't do it from any random MBA school just to get a paper degree.
Today I owe a great deal of my career acceleration to ISB especially because of the immense support received in starting my venture.
Degrees are as good as you make of them❤️.
If you are interested in learning about GGI's MBA Scholar program, you can learn here.
Author- Shatakshi Sharma, Co-founder Global Governance Initiative & GTI, Ex- BCG, Advisor; Tony Blair Institute